1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a communication system and a process for communication on a global Internet, Intranet or Extranet type network between at least one item of automation equipment offering one or several automation functions in an automation application and at least one item of remote equipment. The communication system uses the WSDL (Web Services Description Language), using at least one WEB service conform with the WSDL language and capable of interacting with a program in the automation equipment. This type of communication system may be applicable to any automation application particularly industrial logic controllers, building automation equipment, or instrumentation/control for electrical distribution networks.
2. Discussion of the Background
The term “automation equipment” used below refers to a programmable logic controller, a numeric control, an instrumentation/control station or any equipment or automation module with at least one processing unit capable of connecting to an IP (Internet Protocol) network as defined in the following section, and capable of executing a program to offer one or several automation functions in an automation application. This definition will thus include an application specific module or an inputs/outputs module of a programmable logic controller, a dialog terminal, a speed variator, etc.
It is known that this type of automation equipment may include a WEB server to be able to exchange data related to the automation equipment with a remote WEB client, such as a browser connected to a global communication network. This global network may be of the Internet, Intranet or Extranet type conform with the TCP/IP standard or the UDP/IP standard and will be called “IP network” throughout the rest of the presentation. In particular, these functions are described in documents WO9913418, U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,603, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,442. Data related to the automation equipment are then formatted and sent by the WEB server, for example in the HTML or XML (extended Markup Language) pages. It is also possible that a WEB server installed in automation equipment could load a program, usually called an Applet, in remote equipment, and the said program is executed in the remote equipment to exchange requests transported by the IP protocol, with the WEB server in the automation equipment.